Never Let You Set Set Set Your Fire (closed)

“You need to be.” The telepath didn’t thank Josh for his agreement as he might under better circumstances. As far as he was concerned, and he wanted to believe that objective reality would back his side in this one, agreeing to be more cautious was literally the least that Josh could do.

Sean sighed softly at the other promise and glanced out the window briefly, before focusing his eyes back on the road ahead of him. He appreciated the promise and chose to believe it, chose to believe that Josh would never make such a request of him again unless it was absolutely necessary. Because this was something that Sean wouldn’t do under normal circumstances, something of which he wasn’t proud at all, but Josh had asked – Josh had needed him – and thus he had done it anyway. He didn’t think the other man understood, truly, what type of power he had over the telepath, and Sean knew that objectively he should be concerned about that.

Then again, it had been almost thirty-three years, and he didn’t remember what life was like without that dynamic so concern was impossible as more than an academic exercise. Despite that, the promise was important.

“I want you to call me if you get into trouble,” he said, because Sean did want to be Josh’s lifeline if he could be. He didn’t mind that because it was part and parcel of friendship. “I just don’t want you to get into this type of trouble again.”

There was a vein of self-deprecating thoughts emanating from Josh, amidst the guilty ones, and Sean didn’t have the energy to grapple with those in addition to everything else. He couldn’t grapple with Josh’s thought that he would do this for anyone, not merely in how it undermined their connection but also because it demonstrated that Josh didn’t understand just what was so onerous or odious about what had happened at the jail cell. As such, he raised his mental shields to their maximum levels, despite the headache which assaulted his temples and made him yearn for the pills in his glove compartment.

There would be time for all of that later, once he was alone and on his way home. There were leftovers in the refrigerator, and he wouldn’t have to cook. Then, after a couple of days, he could call Charlie and do something to surreptitiously mitigate this with his police officer friend. It would have to do.

Soon enough, they had reached Josh’s street, and Sean pulled the car into the familiar driveway. The one that was never occupied because Josh didn’t own a car. Although the telepath parked the vehicle, he didn’t order the other man to leave. “I’ll call you sometime this weekend, but not tomorrow morning. I’ll probably be asleep when you leave for services.”

If he took a sleeping pill, he might be asleep when the other man got out of services, which was unusual but not unwarranted given this evening’s events.